In soccer/footie terms, it would be like one of the small European countries (Moldova or Armenia perhaps) beating Spain/Italy in the last match of Euro or World Cup qualifiers to make the big tourney and knocking out the big team in the process...

This is what it would be like:

On 29 June 1950, at the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, the United States defeated the England 1–0 in a group match. The event is also known as the Miracle on Grass. The match was played in Belo Horizonte at Estádio Independência. The game and the U.S. team were profiled by author Geoffrey Douglas in his book The Game of Their Lives (ISBN 0-8050-3875-2), which was made into a 2005 film of the same title.

Background
At the time, the English were considered the "Kings of Football", with a post-war record of 23 wins, 4 losses, and 3 draws. Conversely, the Americans had lost their last seven international matches (including the 1934 World Cup and 1948 Summer Olympics) by the combined score of 45–2. The odds were 3–1 the English would win the Cup, and 500–1 for the U.S.

England was so (over) confident for that game that they decided not to dress the great Sir Stanley Matthews for that match.

USA beating those pesky Russians in hockey during the 80 Olympics also is of this level of upset.

Unfortunately...

the party just ended

Puerto Rico-5 Netherlands-0

It was a great run

The team should be proud..



I have to mention something- I saw that Holland had that fucking idiot Randall Simon on the team..

Remember him ??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V9kJw-kWQ8



Smuler

Actually, the party continues. The Dutch advanced to the next round with the win last night. Tonight's loss just gives them a lesser seed. They play Venezuela at 1p.m. Eastern time on Saturday in Miami. Baseball fans who haven't been watching the tournament have really missed some terrific games. I know that baseball is a tough sell to those who didn't grow up with it but this is a great time to watch, if just for a little while, and hope that this miracle continues for a while longer.

And leave Randall Simon alone. He's a former Cub (albeit a bad one) and I'm honor bound to defend him.

Hi ABC

Thanks for pointing out my error...I thought that they were done..

PS-Retarded Randy was only a Cub for a month before you got sick of him too:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/sim ... html#TRANS


Best Regards

Smuler

Oh I don't know, in the dumbass competition, I think Fat Sidney Ponson might take the cake for costing himself millions by getting tossed in jail for a beach fight in Curacao...

And who imploded and gave up the 2 runs to the Dutch? None other than Carlos Marmol, Chicago Cubs!

Otto (Bleeds Cubbie Blue)

USA vs. Netherlands tonight! Blyleven was on "Talking Baseball" with Ed Randall this morning. Only 5 players on the Dutch team have MLB experience. Blyleven said some of his guys had to call home and get a few extra days off from work. They were not expecting to still be playing!!!

this whole thread makes me laugh...you know that this story was a big, fat nothing here!?

real Dutch sports fans were focused this weekend on the World Speedskating Championships in Vancouver. they also saw the next American champion emerge...I'm guessing that got the equivalent coverage in USAToday that the WBC did here.

Sven Kramer FTW.
-paniked

It's funny, the other day my dad asked me if I thought the WBC was getting a lot of attention in Holland. I told him that it was probably getting as much attention as speed skating gets in the US. In any event it's really been a joy to watch good, playoff caliber baseball in early March. The David & Goliath aspect of the Dutch defeat of the Dominican got a lot of Americans interested and hoping for their run to continue. Alas, it was not to be.